Great Western Main Line electrification - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[rower40]

According to the Daily Fail, work on 3 bridges in Royal Wootton Bassett will be delayed by the discovery of a colony of endangered great crested newts in Royal Wootton Bassett -

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3267985/Bad-newts-train-High-speed-link-delayed-year-animal-colony.html

Cue massive sighs-of-relief from NR^» (Network Rail - home page) and their signalling and electrification subcontractors.  The enormous delays to the project, brought about by constant scope changes, and lack of skilled designers/installers/testers, can now be blamed on newts.  Not boiling frogs, honest.  (See Roger Ford, Modern Railways, for about the last 15 years...)

[Timmer]

I bet countries around the world laugh at us that we will stop major building projects because some tiny reptiles have been found. I've nothing against newts but we really do need to get our priorities right.

[lordgoata]

I bet countries around the world laugh at us that we will stop major building projects because some tiny reptiles have been found. I've nothing against newts but we really do need to get our priorities right.

We have, by protecting the endangered species.

[John R]

I bet countries around the world laugh at us that we will stop major building projects because some tiny reptiles have been found. I've nothing against newts but we really do need to get our priorities right.

We have, by protecting the endangered species.

You only have to google newts and delay to get a large number of instances where projects have been held up. So for an endangered species, they are remarkably common.

[lordgoata]

So the protection is working then, which is great newts 

Ok, OK back to my day job....

[Timmer]

I'm sure anyone reading this thread who endures the daily crush into and out of Paddington will take comfort from the fact that as the delays to electrification continue to mount up that the little newts are happy further down the line along with the butterflies and bats.

If the Victorians had taken every bit of wildlife into consideration then we wouldn't have a railway at all. Hmmm maybe that isn't such a bad thing? 

[Jason]

I don't know if this is new news or just scaremongering ?
"Green Park Station may open without any trains stopping there"
http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/green-park-station-open-without-10243662

[Bmblbzzz]

Initially  then realised it's a different Green Park station!

[paul7575]

It is a realistic issue.   The timetables have to consider the entirety of what is going on across an area including a number of busy junctions.  The line doesn't run in isolation, you have XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) and freight whose timings also have to deal with conflicts at Reading West Jn, Oxford Rd Jn, Southcote Jn, and with SWT^▸ (South West Trains) main line services at Basingstoke, (even if the stoppers don't cross the mainline because they run into a bay they still cross the up line in doing so).  The turnaround time at Basingstoke might disappear completely with an extra stop both ways if all the times at Reading are fixed, for example.

Paul

[grahame]

It is a realistic issue. 

Indeed ... although I would wonder about alternate trains skipping Bramley and skipping Mortimer, leaving them with an hourly service.  Back of an envelope calculations shows that about half a dozen passengers get off, and half a dozen get on, each train at each of these stops. And still with 2 stops between Southcote and Basingstoke, no operational pathing issues. As an old friend of ours might write, stops CANCELLED for OPERATIONAL CONVENIENCE, but it might be the best of a bad job.  Could there also be some Reading West skips, as that's also served by locals to Newbury.

[ChrisB]

Could skip Green Park and make only hourly stops there....

[BerkshireBugsy]

Anyway back to the original topic I haven't travelled into London for over a month now and one thing I noticed about the installation of OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") masts is that it is extremely random.In some sections there are just the circular tubes waiting to be cut to size where in other areas there are masts, cross masts and dangly sections (excuse my ignorance on what they are called S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph)!)

And it some areas there is nothing at all.

[Timmer]

Anyway back to the original topic I haven't travelled into London for over a month now and one thing I noticed about the installation of OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") masts is that it is extremely random.In some sections there are just the circular tubes waiting to be cut to size where in other areas there are masts, cross masts and dangly sections (excuse my ignorance on what they are called S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph)!)

And it some areas there is nothing at all.

Really makes you wonder just how far behind they really are now.

[Tim]

Anyway back to the original topic I haven't travelled into London for over a month now and one thing I noticed about the installation of OLE^▸ (Overhead Line Equipment, more often "OHLE") masts is that it is extremely random.In some sections there are just the circular tubes waiting to be cut to size where in other areas there are masts, cross masts and dangly sections (excuse my ignorance on what they are called S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph)!)

And it some areas there is nothing at all.

Really makes you wonder just how far behind they really are now.

They are definitely behind, but they have actually done rather a lot just very randomly distributed (I was surprised to see a large number of piles done in S Wales).  I suspect it means that it will all come together in complete runs of OLE rather quickly. 

[Thatcham Crossing]

Whilst I admire your optimism, on the 2 bits of line I travel fairly frequently (PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-RDG^‡(resolve), and RDG-THA on the B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury)) there still seem to be several stretches where there aren't even piles in the ground yet.

For example, around Slough Station, there seems to be very little evidence of electrification work under way at all?